Students Find $100 Textbooks Cost $50, Purchased Overseas

Published: October 21, 2003

Correction Appended

(Page 2 of 2)

None of the three major textbook publishers -- Pearson, McGraw Hill, and Thomson -- would discuss why overseas prices are so much lower than domestic ones, referring all questions to Allen Adler, the lawyer for the American Association of Publishers.

''This is a season when textbook publishers get kicked around a lot, and they're feeling vulnerable,'' Mr. Adler said. ''The practice of selling U.S. products abroad at prices keyed to the local market is longstanding. It's not unusual, it doesn't violate public policy and it's certainly not illegal. But publishers are still coming to terms with the dramatic change in the law.''

Mr. Adler contends that foreign textbook prices are pegged to the per capita income and economic conditions of the destination countries -- and that foreign sales are a boon to America's standing in the world, to foreign students seeking an American-quality education, and even to American consumers, since each extra copy sold overseas, even at a low price, helps to spread the high costs of putting out a new textbook.

As more and more customers turn to reimporting books, it is an open question how long the overseas price differentials will last.

''We buy from the U.K., France, Israel and the Far East,'' said Bob Crabb of the University of Minnesota Bookstores. ''As long as the publishers are offering books at less than half the price that's available here, we'll take advantage of it. It's great for students. For publishers, the marginal costs of printing a few extra books and selling them overseas are very, very low. But I would guess that shortly, the sales here will begin eating into their U.S. sales in a serious way.''

Disgruntlement over textbook costs has been growing in the United States as prices have risen. Last month, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, announced that the average New York college freshman and sophomore spends more than $900 a year on texts -- 41 percent more than in 1998 -- and proposed a plan to make $1,000 of textbook costs tax deductible. The same week, University of Wisconsin students demonstrated against high textbook prices and in favor of creating a textbook rental system.

To be sure, textbook costs, however high, are only the final straw for American college students, whose tuition costs and fees have been rising rapidly. At Williams and other elite universities, for example, tuition, room and board now tops $35,000 a year. In Britain, though, the cost of tuition is largely borne by the government and students pay much less.

For example, tuition alone for undergraduates at Harvard is currently $26,066 a year as compared with $1,840 at Oxford University.

In the United States, one in five students does not buy all the required texts. And more and more, like Mr. Sarkis and Mr. Kinsley, are willing to go to great lengths for a cheaper alternative. ''I got mad when I found out that our labor economics book was something like $90,'' said Mr. Kinsley, who, like Mr. Sarkis, graduated in 2001. ''I didn't think I would read $90 worth in it, so I was determined to find something cheaper, and I spent five hours searching on the Web.''

Mr. Sarkis said Williams's campus bookstore made the high costs all too visible. ''They really rubbed it in,'' he said. ''If you were the highest spender of the day, they'd ring this little bell and say they had a new winner, and give you a lollipop. I got the lollipop twice.''

Photo: David Kinsley, left, and Richard Sarkis, former students at Williams College, sell textbooks at deep discounts by importing them. (Photo by Susan Farley for The New York Times)(pg. A18) Chart: ''Same Book, Lower Price'' The same college textbooks used in the United States can often be purchased for much less from Britain, even after factoring in the cost of shipping. Some examples: Lehninger Principles of Biochemistry AMAZON.COM: $146.15 AMAZON.CO.UK: $71.53 DIFFERENCE: $74.62 Physics, Volume 1 AMAZON.COM: $93.75 AMAZON.CO.UK: $63.37 DIFFERENCE: $30.38 Macroeconomics AMAZON.COM: $114.00 AMAZON.CO.UK: $71.78 DIFFERENCE: $42.22 Linear System Theory and Design AMAZON.COM: $110.00 AMAZON.CO.UK: $49.81 DIFFERENCE: $60.19 Domestic shipping is free for orders over $25 on Amazon.com, though there are some exceptions. British prices have been converted to dollars and include shipping to the United States. (Sources by Amazon.com; Amazon.co.uk)(pg. A18)

Correction: October 22, 2003, Wednesday A front-page article yesterday about sales of American textbooks overseas at lower prices than in the United States misspelled the given name of a lawyer representing a textbook publishers' association and misstated its name. He is Allan Adler, not Allen. He represents the Association of American Publishers, not the American Association of Publishers.